https://open.spotify.com/show/0wvUXhrVIvn2YuPnJSKn7u
Welcome to the first episode of our new podcast, ‘Health and Wealth’. Our guest today is Gauis Chibueze a.k.a Bitcoin Chief. He is one of the early investors of Bitcoin. Click on the link above to listen to the audio interview. You can also read below.
What is Bitcoin and how did you get started ?
I happen to be an early investor in Bitcoin in 2011 and had first learned of it through someone I used to follow on social media.
What stood out to me is that there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin forever. This means the supply is fixed and the demand is infinite – so I needed to position myself to get some. In 2011, I bought my first Bitcoin for $35 and I never knew a day would come where 1 Bitcoin would be selling for $60,000. I have been fascinated by the technology behind it.
I resigned my from job in 2015 to face Bitcoin and cryptocurrency full time. This is what I’ve been doing since then.
Why cryptocurrency ?
For every generation there comes that technological shift. For children born in the late 80s/90s, they saw the birth of the internet. Many did not take it serious but now the internet is one of the biggest estates to harvest in. People are making millions.The blockchain technology behind Bitcoin is here to do the same thing that the internet did. Blockchain is very transparent for everyone to see, you cannot fraud the financial sector. You cannot tamper with even a dot, unlike the central banks of the world who have the liberty to print more money any time they want without the country growing up economically to match the money that they’re printing. Many African countries suffer from this. With the fixed supply or Bitcoin, nobody can change the amount.
Why Bitcoin ?
Bitcoin is secure, fast and transparent. These unique attributes is why people should invest in Bitcoin. Additionally, Bitcoin is the fastest way to beat inflation.
In 2011, you needed 100-200 Bitcoin to buy a Toyota. Today you need less that one Bitcoin to but a Toyota. If we compare people who kept their money in the bank for the last ten years and people who kept Bitcoin, people who kept Bitcoin are richer because their money has grown. This is called money “growing in transit”. While other currencies have depreciated, the value of Bitcoin continues to rise. This is why we need to pay attention.
Bitcoin vs other cryptocurrency
There are other cryptocurrencies outside of Bitcoin. The reason why other cryptocurrencies exist is because people create different products. For example, if you owned a boutique where you sell female wears and you create a shopping voucher. Then you tell your existing customers “my dear customers if you want to buy this shirt from me and you want to pay with pounds £100 for this shirt but if you’re using my voucher you’re going to pay £80”. This is similar to how these products work, they create an incentive for people within an ecosystem and have “use cases”. That is like when you create a voucher and say it is for use just in your boutique. If person A has your voucher and sees person B who wants to shop with you, person A may now sell the voucher to the person B. They may trade it out because it has value and person B would still get the benefits at your shop.
So if you are investing in Bitcoin, you are using your money to but Bitcoin from other people that already have. Similar to how shares are traded on the stock market.
It is Bitcoin v other cryptocurrencies because Bitcoin was created to be used in its own Bitcoin ecosystem but another cryptocurrency may want it to be used in a different ecosystem. Other people create their other cryptocurrencies for it to be used in their own ecosystem.
What is the future of Bitcoin – is it a fad ?
Looking at the technology behind Bitcoin, it is here to stay. Even central banks of the world and big financial organisations are paying attention to it.
In 2016, the CEO of Paypal one of the biggest online payment systems in the world in the world said that Bitcoin was rat poison, useless and will die. Last year November, his company PayPal started selling Bitcoin to its clients and allowing its users to use Bitcoin. This year he has released a Bitcoin buying and selling platform.
The use of Bitcoin is here to stay. One reason is because it is so fast. If I was to transfer money to my wife in Manchester, U.K. while I’m in Dubai I will have to go to the bank and start filling forms whereas I can transfer Bitcoin to her instantly and she can transfer it into pounds.
It is not going anywhere but there is also room for improvement in technology. The way we met the internet is not where it is now. Bitcoin and blockchain products will keep improving.
The initial vision of the founders and early adopted of Bitcoin was that it would replace the fiat currency that we use today. Do you think this is possible ? Is the future of money digital ?
Yes, but it will take time. Less than 10% of people even know about blockchain right now but it will continue to grow especially as central banks continue to adopt it. It will grow from country to country. This will also require education of the people and enough internet penetration for these things to happen.
There is a lot of hype and interest in NFYS (non-fungible tokens). What are they and should I be interested or not ?
Everyone is trying to buy a portion of the virtual digital world, the “metaverse”. NFT is like people buying digital arts. There is the only version but people are building hype because of its uniqueness. People use it to access certain things. For example, a guy bought a particular piece of artwork for $70m. People thought he was crazy but he can build things with that. Others will be paying so much money to visit where he is keeping that artwork in his virtual plot of land. The NFT craze is not just hype it is also the future.
If I had £100 to invest, what specific cryptocurrency should I invest in and why ?
£100 will get you £100 worth of Bitcoin but what you will get is satoshi value which is will get you a fraction of the 21 million Bitcoin available. Bitcoin is divisible, not just one Bitcoin or nothing.
